Vol. 2 Chapter 2: Love advice.

As I fled for my life from Asakawa’s winter glare, I caught a glimpse of one of my friends near the teacher’s table. Usually, he’d stay with his other group of friends and joke around. Instead, he had a shadow cast over his expression as he gazed at the little birds flitting outside the window.

The members of his other group were chatting a few steps away, occasionally throwing anxious glares at Katayama for some reason.

“Katayama, good morning,” I greet him.

“…Oh, Miyamoto, morning.”

He seems quite listless today. Not only did he have a delay in recognizing who I was by my voice, his hair—usually three-dimensional and groomed—was draped down straight. I could safely assume he was depressed or something along those lines.

“What’s wrong, man? If you need to talk about it, I’m here for you.”

He slowly turned his head at my words, and it was visible that his usual cheerfulness was nowhere to be seen. He must be troubled by something, whatever it is.

“Y’know… I, I got a girl I like. Actually, it’s been this way for a while now.”

“I didn’t know that… Hmm, why don’t you just tell her your feelings honestly without ripping your heart out for it?”

“No, that’s not good enough. I try to tell her, but it just doesn’t work.”

Not only is he a good-looking man, but he’s also funny and caring. It’s hard to find any red flags in such a well-rounded package like him, so it’s unlikely a girl would just flat-out reject him. It’s also not in his nature to be shy to those around him. He’s a man of ambition; even in adversity, he can light the flame in the hearts of others… Probably.

If that’s the case, the other person may have another reason for not even giving him a shot.

“Wait, maybe she has a boyfriend?”

In that case, it’s not surprising she’d turn him down. I’m actually impressed that the girl he likes is so in love with another, that she’d easily brush off a man of Katayama’s caliber. Well then, I’ll just comfort him—

“No, she doesn’t,” he says.

“Then what’s your slump for?”

“I don’t know why, but it’s like she’s avoiding me… ”

‘It’s like?’ So is it a sure thing, or is it difficult to confirm? Either way, things don’t look so good for him.

“I wonder why this is happening… Do you have any idea why, maybe?” I prod him for something.

“That’s the problem. I don’t remember doing anything that would annoy, or that she particularly disliked.”

From the sullen look on his face as he stretched his neck with a groan, he really had zero clue on what was going on. It was hard to imagine a man like Katayama doing something insensitive. With all that said, what’s the reason?

“By the way, who’s she, Katayama?”

“Don’t ask me that outta the blue, dude! … Don’t tell anyone, capiche?”

“My lips are sealed.”

I look around to make sure no one was listening in to our conversation, then he closed in on my ear and whispered the name of that elusive girl.

“…It’s Iwashiro-san.”

“Iwashiro-san…”

Iwa… Shiro? Is she my classmate or something? I have no idea who she is… Wait, no, her name sounds familiar. It’s like that thing where a jingle from a commercial plays so many times it lodges itself into the back of your mind. Every morning, her name—

“Oh, the girl who’s always reading!”

“Yeah, yeah, and that’s what’s so cute about her.”

“That’s fine, but how did you get in touch with her? I’ve never seen that girl talking to anyone.”

“You get it!” He starts to get excited as if waiting for my questions. As I said, I’ve never seen Iwashiro-san talking to anyone else, so I was curious to know how their connection was made. Actually, what did she look like in the first place?

Her seat is in the back of the classroom on the corridor side. Turning around to check her out, I saw that she has that trademark cropped shoulder-length bangs, as well as big round glasses. Furthermore, I could tell from the luster of her black hair that she never dyed it before.

I got the impression that she must be quite the serious girl from her reading a book alone in the corner, a contrast to her surrounding excited classmates. Ugh, I feel bad to say it, I really do, but I just couldn’t understand why my guy liked her so much.

A popular dude and a gloomy girl, huh? Their personalities and interests don’t seem to match at all, yet there must be something that connects them both. I reckon she did something that stole Katayama’s heart.

“Miyamoto? Aren’t you listening?”

Oops, I forgot there was still a mystery to be solved. “Sorry, sorry. I’d love to hear why you love Iwashiro-san so much.”

“O–Oh! Well, I may be a little bad at talking, so just bear with me and listen.”

His eyes were smiling gently as he started to reminisce about his past, and his next words delivered a story as vividly as one could tell it.